oregon senator jeff merkley, heidi ewing, and rachel grady will be joining us. steve satich, ohio congressman, steve latourette, and ambassador nick burns are our guests this morning. it's thursday, december 6th, and "starting point" begins right now. >>> welcome, everybody. our starting point this morning, some major developments to tell you about in egypt, after angry protests against political moves by the president, mohamed morsi, have turned deadly. tanks, armored personnel vehicles, all stationed outside the presidential analysis cairo. not only are they guarding the palace, they're also keeping apart supporters and opponents of morsi. hundreds of his islamist supporters already taking to the streets in cairo this morning. opponents are gathering not very far away. last night the two sides clashed right outside the palace. the violence killed at least five people. hundreds of other people were injured. opponents are demanding that morsi dial back on those sweeping powers that he has granted himself. cnn's reza sayah is live for us in cairo this morning. wh